Courts Hand Down Lighter Sentences Than in Other Types of Tax-Shelter Cases

U.S. courts are doling out more lenient punishment to tax evaders hiding money offshore than to other tax cheats.

Despite a high-profile government crackdown on secret offshore financial accounts since 2009, the average sentence in those cases has been about half as long as in some other types of tax cases, according to a comparison of Internal Revenue Service statistics and data compiled by former U.S. Justice Department lawyer Jack...